Xbox Companion App, control Xbox 360 with WP7 smartphones

Love or hate Microsoft you have to admire how the company continues to improve its products and services, today we can confirm that a new application has been developed for Windows Phone 7 smartphones which allows you to control your Xbox 360.

This application is not yet publicly available, however if you check out the video embedded at the bottom of the post you get an idea of what it is capable of, you clearly see the lady choose a movie to watch using her WP7 device and it then automatically appears on here HDTV via the Xbox 360.

It isn’t currently clear how much functionality this mobile app will pack, but it just goes to show the level of integration which Microsoft is aiming for between its mobile operating system, games console and perhaps next OS for PC / tablet, Windows 8. Dare we say it, Microsoft is becoming Apple-like.

Ben Rudolph over at WindowsTeamBlog managed to get some hands on time with the beta version of the app and says it was very impressive, you should check out his entire article for full details. But to sum things up you can use the app to search for content, one you have found something you can find out detailed information (such as the casts for movie etc) and once you chose something to watch the app acts as a remote control which has all the buttons you would expect from a TV remote.

Here are some screenshots which we took from the video which you will find at the bottom of this post, the video clearly states that these are “simulated”, but they do at least give us a taster of what to expect from the app.

We don’t know when this app will go public, but we can confirm that when it arrives it will be completely free – we will keep you posted as we hear more.